“We’ve added another body this week, and will be trying to add a few more over the coming weeks.” - Coventry City’s Russell Slade

20 January 2017

Laura Hunter

Having completed defensive business, Slade eyes forward additions...

The Sky Blues boss is confident of securing some more new faces in the January transfer market after completing the signing of Derby County’s Farrend Rawson this week.

The centre-half is Slade’s fifth signing of the window, and allows the manager to address the shortfall in other areas of the pitch.

City face a League One contest with in-form Fleetwood Town on Saturday, and the manager has targeted a solid defensive display from his reinforced backline.

He said: “We’ve been more solid defensively and I’ve just completed the last defensive signing that we plan to make. But we still haven’t kept a clean sheet, so that is the next step.

“In midfield our ability to close down, and to be progressive and effective with the ball is important. In the final third, we have got to be ruthless. Those are the areas to work on.

“We’ve got over the result last week, we can’t control that. But we can control Saturday. It is a situation I partially inherited but I believe I can help and there are signs of improvement.”

After two draws and a loss in the past three League One encounters, the Sky Blues boss is now targeting his first league victory since taking over a month ago. Fleetwood enter the tie nine unbeaten in the league, having not lost since mid-November.

He added: “We have been competitive in the last three games, but we’ve only taken two points from nine. There has been a good response, when you suffer a defeat it is your bounceability.

“We’ve added another body this week, and will be trying to add a few more over the coming weeks to give us the best possible opportunity of getting out the bottom four.

“Where we are limited is in midfield and forward. We are fairly sure that we’ll be able to address that in the next few days.”